Blizzard surprised us with a new beta build over the weekend and we now have site Cataclysm site and talent calculator updated to Build 12984.

Included in this update were several new achievements including the amusing which requires you to do a mini-game much like Popcap's Plants vs. Zombies. You can check out all the new achievements along with some more goodies over on our Latest Additions page!

Only one map was added in the new build - this time it's a new one of that shows the locations of several nearby areas around The Maelstrom itself. You can see , and even !

Blizzard has released another preview, this time of the new battleground coming in Cataclysm - ! This new 10 vs 10 battleground will take place in the actual city of Gilneas, and feature many familiar objectives. Much like Arathi Basin, you must control one of three capture points that accumulate points - first team to 2000 points is the victor! What's so great about this map that it's actually in the city so there are all kinds of choke points and places you can strategically block the opposite faction from progressing.

You can read the entire preview after the break or on Blizzard's official website!

It seems when users start up their launchers on the live client you will be greeted with a nice message that says -- Data for the next patch is available.

What does this mean everyone? It means we have finally begun the pre-loading of the 4.0.1 patch. Usually spread out over weeks prior to the release of a major content patch users can grab a huge chunk of the already completed items in the patch so not everything is downloaded on patch day.

To get the background downloader started all you should have to do is boot up the Launcher and make sure you have the options enabled to download in the background.

It seems in the upcoming 4.0.1 patch (which is currently on the PTR), all old PvE and PvP tokens will be converted to a new currency system. Badges like Emblem of Frost and Emblem of Triumph will be converted into Justice Points, and all PvE gear that had badge costs will be converted to the new Justice Points system.

On the PvP side, Arena Season 8 will end with 4.0—all Arena, Honor, any leftover Battleground marks, Stone Keeper's Shard and any other PvP tokens will be converted into the new version of Honor Points. Any items that were sold for any of the old PvP points/tokens will also be converted to the Honor Points system.

Both Justice Points and Honor Points will have a soft cap—you can go over the cap on the original conversion, but at a later point in time a hard cap will be introduced in a content patch. Any excess points after the hard cap is introduced will be converted to gold, which will be received via the mail system.

Blizzard has just launched the 4.0.1 Public Test Realms! This patch will introduce the new streaming client, class & talent changes, stat changes and much more. What this patch doesn't contain is all the Cataclysm zone changes and .

Blizzard has once again graced us with another zone preview - this time with quest designers Eric Maloof and Steve Burke, who talk about the changes coming to Ashenvale in Cataclysm. Eric and Steve go on to talk about the new volcano that has erupted in northern Ashenvale, and how the Horde are taking over key points that were once held by the Alliance. They wrap up the preview by discussing what changed most in Ashenvale, and according to Eric and Steve the terrain is less frustrating than before but the story hasn't changed much—other than being much more intense!

You can check out the entire preview after the break and while you're at it you can check out all of our screenshots of Ashenvale in our Cataclysm guide!!

Zarhym has just posted a rather big announcement on the Cataclysm Beta forums - a new flight skill will be added for all players once they reach level 60. This new skill is called Flight Master's License and this skill will be required to fly in both Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor which includes all the new zones.

Update: Zarhym has updated the original post stating that the new flight skill will cost .

We’ve added a new flying skill called Flight Master's License. When World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is released, players who purchase the expansion will see this skill available from flight trainers for 250 gold once they reach level 60. This new skill is required for flying around all Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms zones, including the new level 80-85 zones.

TankSpot is back once again, this time with a preview of a new Cataclysm Dungeon - . Located in players will fight their way through an instance full of Ancient Egyptian-themed encounters and mobs, where they will finally encounter the final boss: Rajh!

You can watch the entire TankSpot guide to Halls of Origination below!

Once again Aliena is back with another episode of This Week In Warcraft! In this episode Aliena covers topics such as the new beta patch that was released last week, and the fact that Zul'Gurub is being removed as a raid instance!

Operation: Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall have finally been activated on live realms during this morning's downtime! Right now it's only active in North America with European realms assumed tomorrow, maybe?

Operation: Gnomeregan starts in the Tinker Town area of Ironforge, while Zalazane's Fall starts in Sen'jin Village of Durotar.